The yellow passion fruit is a major fruit crop in Brazil. The post-harvest preservation of yellow passion fruits has deserved great attention since the fruit is perishable and subject to a fast deterioration and incidence of pathogenic microorganisms. The aim of this work was to evaluate the in vitro antifungal activity of lemon grass derivatives on the mycelial growth, sporulation, spore germination and length of germ tubes of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and the effect of essential oil, extract, hydrolate and citral lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) for control of anthracnose on the yellow passion fruits. The treatments for the in vitro assay were essential oil (OE) (0.5, 1, 5, 10, 15, 25, 50 and 60 µL mL-1), autoclaved crude aqueous extract (EAA), filtered crude aqueous extract (EAF), hydrolate and citral (1, 5, 10, 20 and 25%). For the in vivo assay the fruits were treated with: OE (0.025, 0.05 and 0.1%), hydrolate (5 and 10%), EAA (10%) and citral (0.1%). Distilled water was used as a control. The anthracnose incidence and severity were evaluated every three days. The in vitro test verified that the 4 evaluated derivatives of lemon grass inhibited the mycelial growth, sporulation and spore germination. The higher the concentration of the derivatives, the higher the inhibition, which for the mycelia growth reached 55.8; 54.5; 30.0 and 19.9% for OE, EAF, EAA and hydrolate, respectively. In vivo tests showed that the OE 0.1% and EAA 10% promoted a reduction in the anthracnose severity.
Colletotrichum gloeosporioides; Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa; post harvest